Setting Sail - Ep 4 Wooden Ships and Iron Men (the West)
Independently at first, the world's great seafarers developed the technology to venture out at sea. In time, they acquired the ability to cover long distances, and return safely. They explored far from their homes, in search of new lands and trades, or new ideas. But in the end, only the West used that ability to rule not only the sea, but much of the world. Though they set out after the others, western sailors used the delay to their advantage. Combined with powerful religious and commercial motives, their technology proved unstoppable. Within a few hundred years, western ships and sailors spread all over the world, and dominated its trade in the name of god and greed. But the ships that allowed them to do so would not last forever. During the 19th century the era of sail came to a gradual close. No longer able to compete with steam, the West's sailing vessels gradually disappeared from the seven seas. Some were left to rot on distant shores, most never escaped the trip to the breakers. Today there are but a few survivors left to remind us of the age of sail. But they remind us of so much more. Locations: Greece (Athens, Santorini, Crete), Denmark, Belgium, Portugal (Lisbon, Sagres), the Netherlands, United Kingdom, United States.
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